National Treasure: Book of Secrets
by rottieluv77
Summary: A sequel to "National Treasure: My Story". Chloe's fifteen now, and is ready to listen to the story of the second treasure hunt her parents, aunts, and uncle went on! This time, me, Riley, and the rest of the gang wind up in a treasure hunt in trying to clear Thomas Gates' name. But what will Ben have to do to get the treasure?(; Hope you like it! *Chapter 6 Updated!*
1. Prologue

**Sorry for taking so long to post the start of this story. Been busy with birthdays, appointments, stuff like that. I hope you enjoy! My take on the second movie :)**

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**National Treasure: Book of Secrets**

**Prologue**

_Present Day_

It was a quiet Friday evening. We had all eaten dinner, and Riley and I had crashed in the living room reading. About an hour into our reading session, fifteen year old Chloe came prancing in and asked, "So what you guys up to?"

"Just reading," I replied not looking up from my book.

"Cool," Chloe said. "Mind if I turn on the TV?"

"Nope, just keep it down," I replied. So Chloe turned on the TV and began watching. We were all quiet for almost ten minutes before Chloe looked up.

"Mom," she began, "it took you guys almost four years before you had me, right?"

"Yeah," I replied slightly confused at the subject matter.

"Well what the heck did y'all do for fun without me?"

"Well…actually quite a lot," Riley said in the background.

"Like what?" Chloe asked.

"Well, let's start at the beginning…"


	2. After the Templar Treasure

**Hi guys! This chapter basically is giving an overview of everything that happened between my first story, and this story. I hope to write a story about this section in more detail, but until then, here is what I have :)**

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**Chapter 1: After the Templar Treasure**

_Twenty through Sixteen Years Ago_

Shortly after finding the Templar treasure, Abigail was moved from her job at the National Archives to a job at the Library of Congress. Having had a job at a national building in D.C. previous to the Library of Congress, she started off with one of the highest positions. She found that they were going to expand, and would be in need of some younger employees within the next few years. Abigail encouraged me to get my Masters in Document Conservation, and a minor in American History. There was an intern position open in her department, and she asked me to take that as I was pursuing my degrees. I loved the idea of working alongside Abigail, as we had become pretty close. So, having the money to go back to college, I jumped at this opportunity.

It was the summer before my sophomore year, and Hannah had come up from Tennessee and visited me. She and Riley, who I had started dating shortly after finding the treasure, kept acting suspicious the entire time she was visiting. She went back to Tennessee right before I started back to school. About half way through my sophomore year, I got the biggest surprise of my life. As my Christmas present that year, Riley proposed to me. Considering that it was Riley, it wasn't incredibly romantic, but I said yes anyway. In the summer before my junior year, we got married. We both wanted kids, but we agreed that we shouldn't have any until I graduated and got settled in at my new job with Abigail. In the last few weeks before I started my junior year, I helped Riley move in with me, and he continued writing the book he started the year before.

Toward the end of my senior year, I began doing paper work and interviews in preparation for getting my job at the Library of Congress. Riley began publishing his book, and he went to different book stores in Washington D.C. selling his book. He was still on his little "tour" when I graduated and started my new job.

It had been eight months after I had started working when Ben and Abigail broke up, and she kicked him out of their house, leaving Ben having to move in with his dad. I quickly became someone Abigail could talk to as needed, and we became much closer. It was ten months after I started my job when things got…interesting.


	3. The Start of the Hunt

**This is basically the start of the story itself. Hope you like!**

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**Chapter 2: The Start of the Hunt**

_Sixteen Years Ago_

Ben had heard the story that his great grandfather told Mr. Patrick. It was about what happened on the night that Abraham Lincoln was shot, and how Ben's great-great grandfather (Thomas Gates) had burned some of the pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary in order to cover up a cipher to a treasure map. Ben found this diary, and finding that several pages had been ripped out, it brought proof to his story. He approached the National Museum of American History about putting Thomas Gates in the museum's Civil War Heroes exhibit. The head of the museum agreed, and had Ben give a speech at the addition of Thomas Gates to the exhibit. Unfortunately, I could not attend this speech because of work, however, Ben called Riley and let him know what happened.

Ben had given some historical facts about certain groups and forces that took place during the Civil War. He explained the story of Thomas Gates, and how he had stopped a Southern extremist group from getting a cipher to a treasure map, the location to where it lead to was unknown. However, at the end of the speech, a man in the audience stood up, claiming he had a missing page from the Booth diary. Based on the information that hadn't burned off from the page, the man accused Thomas Gates as planning the assassination of Lincoln. They tested the page to find that the page was authentic, and it was announced that Thomas Gates was a conspirator, despite the fact that some information about him had been burned off of the page. That's when Ben got a plan in his head, and was determined to fulfill it.

This happened on a Saturday. The Wednesday after, Riley had scheduled to be at a small book store in D.C. signing copies; the only store that whole heartedly supported him and his book. Ben had called him, and asked to meet him after he had finished his book signing. Ben planned on eating dinner with us, and being dropped off at his house after some sort of planning with Riley. Ben's car needed some repairs, and therefore had no means of transportation. Little did I know that about a half an hour before I got off work, Riley would be in a very similar situation.

Shortly before I got off work, my phone began to ring. I looked down at the caller ID, and saw that it was Riley. "Hey, what's up?" I answered.

"Well," Riley started, "the Ferrari was impounded by the IRS."

"What?"

"Yeah, funny story. Remember when my 'trusty' accountant set up a corporation on an island that didn't exist and assured me that that's how rich people do it. Shockingly enough, he wasn't ethical enough to pay off the taxes on the Ferrari before he took off with my money. Since the IRS is now in possession of my car, I now need a ride home."

I paused for a minute, "Oh, Riley." I gave a longsuffering sigh, realizing that being my husband's chauffer for the next couple of weeks. "Where do you want me to pick you up?"

"By the book store if you wouldn't mind." I could see the puppy-dog eye grin even through the phone.

"Alright," I sigh again.

"Don't forget Ben will be with me!"

"I won't. See you in a half an hour."

"Alright. I love you!"

"Love you too," I sighed. "Bye, Ri." And I hung up.

"Was that Riley?" Abigail asked after I got off the phone.

"Yeah," I replied, "he lost his Ferrari to the IRS."

"The IRS?"

"Yeah, long story. But regardless, I guess I'm going to be his transportation for a little while."

"How lovely!" We both laughed. Abigail talked about going on a date tonight with her new boyfriend Connor, a White House curator, and we continued to chat while we finished up work. Then I clocked out, called Riley, and went to go pick him and Ben up.

"Hey," Riley said as they walked up to me upon parking at the bookstore.

"Hey babe," I replied hugging him. I turned to Ben and said, "Hey Ben! I haven't seen you in so long! How are you?"

"I'm good," Ben replied hugging me. "Things have been pretty interesting lately."

"I bet!" I replied. "Well, let's hop in the car, and head to the house for some dinner!"

"Sounds great to me!" Riley said.


	4. Plan in Motion

**Chapter 3: Plan in Motion**

So we headed to the house. We were all silent on the way. However at dinner, Ben became very talkative. He talked about the "evidence" against his great-great grandfather, his break up with Abigail, and I asked about what he planned to do to clear Thomas Gates's name.

"Well," Ben began, "I want to begin by seeing the Booth diary page."

"Don't you need some sort of special ID to see it?" I asked.

"Well, I was wondering if I could borrow your ID badge. Riley would be with me."

"I would, but even I can't see it with my ID badge. I'm below the department that has access to it. The only person I personally know that could get you guys to see it is Abigail, and she's on a date tonight."

"She wouldn't talk to me anyway."

"You don't kn-"

"Riley, I need your help," Ben said interrupting me.

"What do you need him for?" I asked.

"I'm going to have to break into the house," Ben replied. "And I need Riley to disable the alarm code."

"It's still your house," Riley said, "Why can't you just go and get it yourself?"

"Abigail changed the alarm code on me. I can't get in. And since Abigail is on a date, it would be a perfect time to break in."

"Guys, I don't know about this…" I started.

"I'm going to need you to come too," Ben said. "I'll need you to get us into the Library of Congress, and I'll use Abigail's ID badge to get to the diary page."

"I don't want to be involved in this. Abigail is my best friend, and I'm not going to betray her trust."

"Fine," Ben said, "we'll come get you after we get the ID badge." Before I could say anything, Ben turned to Riley, "Come on, Riley. Let's go."

"I hope you don't mind us borrowing your car," Riley said grabbing my keys.

"You're taking my car too? What if Abigail comes back from her date and sees _my_ car?"

"You can blame me tomorrow if she does," Ben replied. And then, after saying good bye, they left. I stayed at home for a little while, taking care of the dogs. I got a text from Riley saying that they didn't need to come get me, as Abigail had come home before they left, and agreed to go and look at the page. I went ahead and prepared myself for an interesting conversation the next morning at work. A few hours later, I went to bed only to be awakened by Riley calling me.

"Hello?" I answered tiredly.

"Hey, I didn't mean to wake you up," Riley replied. "I just called to tell you that I just dropped Ben off and I'm on my way home."

"Ok, I'll see y-"

"Oh! And we also are going to have to go to Mr. Patrick's house after you get off work. We found a cipher on the diary page, and I'm going to bring my computer over there to help him decode it."

"Ok, we can do that. I'll see you when you get here." I hung up, and watched TV to earnestly try to keep myself awake while waiting for Riley. He got home, explained everything that happened, and we went straight to bed.


	5. Translation of the Cipher

**Chapter 4: Translation of the Cipher**

The next day, after an interesting conversation with Abigail before leaving work, I picked up Riley and we headed over to Mr. Patrick's house. On the way, Ben called, saying that they would have dinner for us. Of course, that meant pizza, but I wasn't complaining. After dinner, I helped Ben to come up with five letter key words for Riley to put in his computer in attempt to solve the cipher. It was almost midnight when Ben went into his dad's office to talk to him, while Riley and I continued to come up with words.

Suddenly, Ben came running back in, "Try 'death'!" he said to Riley.

"What?" Riley replied tiredly.

"It's the key code. 'The debt that all men pay' is death." Riley typed it in, and immediately, the computer automatically solved the cipher.

"L-A-B-O-U-L," Riley began as the letters appeared on the screen. He attempted to say what the cipher decoded, "It's Lab-ool...Lab-ahl...La...it's gibberish," He said giving up.

"Laboulaye!" Ben said.

"Laboulaye!" Mr. Patrick added.

"Laboulaye!" Riley concluded. Then he paused and asked, "What is that?"

"It's a who. Édouard Laboulaye," Ben replied. He turned to his dad and said, "Where's the phone?"

"I don't know, son," Mr. Patrick replied, "I can't find anything in this mess."

"It's temporary until I find a new place." "Find the old one. I like her."

"I like her too," I commented. A few minutes later, Ben found the phone and began to dial as he explained that he was calling Abigail.

"Hey, what?" Abigail asked answering the phone.

"We cracked the cipher. It's 'Laboulaye'," Ben replied. "The cipher spells 'Laboulaye'."

"So? Laboulaye was well-known in France. It could be nothing."

"Or maybe there was a treasure map like Thomas Gates said there was, and Laboulaye had it. We only got a partial on the next word. L-A-D, lad...ladder…"

"L-A-D," Abigail thought aloud.

"Aladdin?" Riley suggested.

"Lady!" Abigail answered.

"Thank you, Abigail!" Ben said, "Laboulaye Lady. Do you know what Laboulaye was planning right around the time Lincoln was assassinated?"

"Ok, Ben, I've got to go." "There's a map or a clue to a map on the Statue-" Ben turned to us and said, "She hung up."

"She took your call," Mr. Patrick said. "That was good." I nodded in reply.

"Well what does this mean?" Riley asked pointing to his computer.

"The Statue of Liberty," Ben replied.

"You're saying there's a treasure map in the Statue of Liberty?" Riley asked.

"Laboulaye was a Mason," Mr. Patrick stated. "They built clues into everything."

"Did you learn that from my book?" Riley asked. Mr. Patrick gave a confused look as I just sat and shook my head.

"So the only question is," Mr. Patrick began, "which Statue of Liberty?"

"Exactly," Riley said. Then he turned and asked, "There's more than one?"

"There are three, Riley," I said shaking my head at my husband's ignorance.

"One's in New York," Mr. Patrick stated. "One is in the Luxembourg Garden."

"But he only referred to one as his 'lady'," Ben finished. Ben got on his dad's computer, and began to look at airplane tickets.

"What are you doing?" Riley asked.

"We have to get a flight to Paris," Ben said. "We have to look at the Statue of Liberty there. Laboulaye would have only referred to the statue in France as his lady." I thought for a bit.

"So Riley," I finally said, "I see a late honeymoon in our future." He cautiously laughed as I winked.

"I can try and get you guys some type of dinner," Ben said. "Then we have to focus on finding this clue."

"Thank you Ben," I replied. "I was actually kidding about the whole honeymoon thing, but I'll definitely take the opportunity!"

"Well, you need it. Might as well dig anything romantic out of Riley while you have the chance." Ben paused, then said, "Course that might not ever happen anyway." I laughed, as Riley shouted, "Hey!" about five seconds later. It wasn't long before Ben found a good price on tickets, and we had three ready to go for the following morning. I got off for the rest of the week, and Riley and I headed back to our house and we began to pack for Paris.


	6. Laboulaye Lady

**Chapter 5: Laboulaye Lady**

The next morning, we got to the airport at 8:30, our flight leaving at 10:30. We arrived in Paris at 7pm our time, but 1 o'clock in the morning there. We got to a hotel, and attempted to sleep before getting up in the morning. At around 10am (which was 4am our time), we got up and took a cab to the Statue of Liberty. We got there at around noon, and we all got lunch at the Eiffel Tower (my romantic dinner), which was right next to the statue. After lunch, Riley got his remote-controlled helicopter ready, along with the camera attached, and he flew that around the statue to try and find this clue.

"This is like impossible what you are doing," Ben commented while watching Riley maneuver the helicopter all around the statue.

"Glad you're enjoying it," Riley said not looking away from the helicopter. I continued to stare at the screen on the remote control, showing what the camera on the helicopter was capturing.

"Laboulaye had to leave a clue somewhere on here," Ben commented. "Move in on the torch."

"Let me get there," Riley replied. "It's not as easy as it looks."

"No believe me, I understand," Ben commented. Suddenly, we heard some French voices behind us yelling to us from the street median. We turn around to see two police officers on bicycles. Ben begins to walk over to them, saying, "Excuse me, officer, may I help you?" in the process. I began to follow him.

"Ah," one of the officers began, "American. Of course you see no problem in disturbing everyone's pleasant morning with your buzzing there." Upon hearing that it was Riley's helicopter that was getting us in trouble, I ran back over to him.

"Riley, you need to-"

"Got it," Riley said ignoring me. He took a picture of what was on the screen, which was an inscription on the fire of the torch. With my help, Riley landed the helicopter, and we ran back over to Ben.

"Ben!" I yelled.

"I got it!" Riley said handing Ben the remote. "I hope you read French."

"May I?" the officer asked. Ben replied with something in French, as Riley nudges him.

"He's a cop," Riley whispers. Ben basically ignores him, as the officer began to translate what was on the torch, with the help of the other officer. The inscription read, "Across the sea, these twins stand resolute to preserve what we are looking for: Laboulaye 1876."

"It's a clue," Riley said.

Ben sat and thought out loud, "'These twins stand resolute.' Let's see. Resolute twins. Resolute. Resolute. And then twins. Siamese twins? Siam? Trade routes between France and Thailand?" Ben laughed, "That's ridiculous." He paused, then said, "HMS Resolute. A British ship that got lost in the Arctic in the 1800s. It was salvaged by American whalers, and then Congress sent it back to England. When the ship was finally retired, Queen Victoria had two desks made from its timbers. Voilà. Resolute twins."

"And where are those desks now?" asked the officer.

"The closest one is in London," Ben replied. He turned to Riley and asked, "Riley, how fast can we get to Buckingham Palace?"

"I don't know," Riley replied. "Why don't you ask your new best friend?" Ben held his hands up in a what-was-that-for gesture, and the officers began to talk in French.

"He's going to call you a cab," the officer said, pointing to the other officer. Ben thanked him in French, and the officer turned to Riley and said, "Nice helicopter. Is that yours?"

"Yes, actually it is." Riley replied.

"Ok," the officer said pulling some piece of paper out of his pocket, "so you get the ticket."

"Great!" I said sarcastically as I gave Riley a slightly angered look. He shrugged his shoulders as the officer found a cab. We headed back to the hotel to grab all of our stuff, and then headed to the airport again for a flight to England.


	7. Buckingham Palace

**Chapter 6: Buckingham Palace**

We arrived in London at around 4pm (11am our time and an hour behind Paris), and I just relaxed and watched TV while Ben and Riley figured out how to get into the Queen's study.

Suddenly, Ben got a phone call from his dad, "Hi, Dad."

"Ben," Mr. Patrick replied rather concernedly, "The house was broken into last night. I was attacked."

"Call the police," Ben said. "I'm coming home."

"What happened?" Riley asked. I sat up, trying to listen to what was going on.

"What good would that do?" Mr. Patrick asked. "They didn't take anything. And besides, I'm fine."

"Ok," Ben said. "We're in London. We're going to Buckingham Palace. We have an appointment with the curator tomorrow afternoon."

"Son, just be careful," Mr. Patrick warned. "Bye."

"Bye," Ben hung up and turned to Riley and me, "Someone else is after the treasure."

"Of course someone else is after the treasure," Riley said. "It's the axiom of treasure hunting."

"We have to hurry and see that desk," Ben stated.

"We wouldn't want to miss that appointment," Riley said. With that said, we finished getting our preparations ready for the next day. As usual, Riley set up technical equipment for this assignment. I just did whatever they needed me to do, which included going getting a rental car. We left for Buckingham Palace at 11am, our appointment being at 1. We arrived, and Ben and I both had ear pieces so that we could hear Riley, and Riley could hear us. Riley, on the other hand, set up a little station in one of the stalls in the men's bathroom, and kept an eye on everything that was happening. Ben got ready for some plan to get into the Queen's study, while I walked around, keeping an eye on everything that way. Suddenly, I saw a blonde haired woman that looked very familiar.

"Hey, I think I see-" I felt someone tap my shoulder, and I turned around, "Hannah!"

"Abigail!" I heard Ben say through my ear piece.

"What are they doing here?" Riley asked into the ear pieces.

"What are you doing here?" Ben and I said at the same time from our places in the palace.

"Mr. Patrick called Abigail and me," Hannah said. "He said your next clue was here. Abigail went to find Ben."

"She found him," I said trying to drown out Ben and Abigail's conversation.

"How do you know?" Hannah asked. I pointed to my ear and she nodded.

"They're really there?" Riley said into my ear piece. I could faintly hear Abigail talking into Ben's ear piece as Riley said, "Drop them. Loose them."

"Look, Avi," Hannah began, "Abigail and I both really want to help." I heard Riley say something to Ben as she said that.

Suddenly, we heard a booming, "Well fine!" coming from Ben. "If that's what you want, then let's have it out right now!"

Hannah and I both hung our heads in embarrassment as Riley said, "So subtle." I giggled; only having to point to my ear again as Hannah gave me a confused look. We continued to watch this argument unfold.

Abigail gave Ben a confused look, to which he replied, "Well let me guess? It's the wrong time! It's the wrong place! I'm wrong _again_!" He began to march down the stairs as he continued, "Wrong about us! Wrong about Thomas Gates! Wrong that you would like the Queen Anne Chair!" He finished pointing to Abigail.

Abigail finally chimed into the argument by saying, "You're wrong to assume I'd like the chair!"

Ben went down the last set of stairs, while exclaiming, "You see? Everybody, listen to this. This is more interesting than that." He grabbed a man around the shoulders, pointed at Abigail and continued, "She thinks that even when I'm right, I'm wrong! Isn't that right?" Abigail looked angrily flustered as Ben let go of the man and went on to say, "Abigail, just because I answer a question quickly, doesn't make it wrong!"

Abigail countered, "Not when the right answer is something we need to figure out as a couple! That's what couples do, Ben!"

A guard came and put a hand on Ben's shoulder and said, "Sir, you and your missis need to take it outside."

"Oh, now look what you've done!" Ben exclaimed. "You've brought the little bobbies down on us!" He looked at the guard and said, "You take the missis outside. I'm staying right here." Abigail yelled at Ben as he jumped on the banister and slid down railing.

A guard stopped Ben and said, "Good afternoon, sir."

"Hello," Ben said while imitating a British accent.

The guard leaned in closer to Ben, then asked, "Been drinking, have we?"

"Just a nip," Ben replied. "Popped down to the pub for a pint! Bit of all right! Going to arrest a man for that? Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whis_key_?"

"Sir, that's enough," the guard said.

Ben interrupted by exclaiming, "Bangers and mash. Bubbles and squeak. Smoked eel pie."

"Sir!"

"Haggis!"

"That's it, dismount the banister!" the guard exclaimed while dragging Ben off the banister, and another guard grabbing Abigail. I was actually worried about Ben and Abigail being led away, until Riley assured me that this was all part of the plan. We continued watching.

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!" Ben yelled. "Here they are standing in a row! Small ones! Big ones! Some as big as your _HEAD_!"

"That was brilliant," Riley said into my ear.

After they had been lead away, Hannah and I proceeded to explore the palace, waiting for Ben and Abigail to get out. After about fifteen minutes, Riley told us to meet the three of them outside the palace. As he gave us those instructions, the fire alarm went off, and we were basically pushed outside. We met up with Ben, Abigail, and Riley, and after the proper hellos, we were heading back to the rental car.


	8. Chase Through London

**Chapter 7: Chase through London**

After leaving Riley tangled in a large pack of leashed dogs, we entered into a small alleyway. Riley asked to see what they found in the desk, and it was a plank of wood, with some type of symbols on it. Ben believed them to be Incan or Aztec. Ben turned, and began to stare in a particular direction as Abigail showed Riley the markings. Suddenly, Ben shouted, "Wilkinson!" and began running. We all turned tail and ran toward the car, Mitch (Wilkinson's first name) shouting behind us.

"He's the one after the treasure," Ben stated as we all began to hop in the car.

"I'll drive!" Riley said as he hopped in the driver's seat…or so he thought.

"We're in England," Ben said as he hopped in to the actual driver's seat. Riley just nodded in defeat as Abigail, Hannah, and I hopped in the back. Ben started the car as the rear view monitor came up on the dashboard.

Ben glanced at the monitor, then turned around and shouted, "It's a gun! Get down!" One of Mitch's men shot out the rear window, just after we all ducked to avoid the bullet. We were covered in glass.

"We're trapped!" Riley yelled.

"Hang on!" Ben said. "Keep your heads down!" He put the car in reverse, and while looking at the rear view monitor, began to drive in reverse. We got out of the alleyway, as Mitch and his other man steal a car and start chasing us. We turned a corner, to find the pack of dogs we saw before. After slamming on our breaks to narrowly avoid hitting them, we put the car in gear and began to drive forward, Mitch and his men right on our tail, or beside us, the entire time. We came to a turn, and nearly overturned, skidding into the side of a bus, glass flying everywhere. "Everyone alright?" Ben asked. We got stuck behind a truck carrying some sort of barrels. We heard gun shots behind us, as all of us, minus Ben, ducked. The bullets hit the barrels, causing them to fall or explode. We saw one of the cars chasing us tip over from the barrels, the other still narrowly missing them, as we were. We finally went around the truck, and spun in front of it. The truck driver slammed on his breaks, causing the other car to run into the back of the truck. We sped away, trying to get out of there before Mitch could see where we went. Suddenly, Abigail's phone rang.

"What is that?" asked Riley. "Someone's phone."

"It's him," Abigail said holding up her phone and handing it to Ben.

"You have his number on speed dial?" Riley asked.

"Oh shu-"

"Mitch," Ben answered interrupted Abigail, "this has got to end before someone gets hurt."

"Give me what you got at Buckingham Palace," Mitch said, "and it won't be necessary."

"Tell that to my father," Ben said hanging up. We all looked at him somewhat astonishedly, as we entered another alleyway, full with people. We honked, but people weren't really in the mood to get out of our way. Suddenly, everyone began running.

"Where are all these people going?" Ben asked.

"Why is everyone running?" commented Riley.

Abigail turned around, and shouted, "He's right there! Go, go!" Hannah and I turned around to see one of Mitch's men, with the truck that had the barrels earlier. We sped through as fast as we could without running people over. We finally got into a place that the truck couldn't follow, and we found another main road.

Abigail turned around, "They're still behind us."

"This phone have a camera in it?" Ben asked holding up Abigail's phone.

"No, it's broken," Abigail replied. Ben threw the phone back to us.

"Alright," Ben said to Riley, "give me the plank." Ben positioned the plank in his hand, then said, "Hang on, we're going to run a red light." We all braced as we came to a light. Ben held up the plank, so it would be facing the traffic cam. We sped through the light unscathed…even if Riley was emotionally scarred.

"Riley," Ben began, "hack into the London Police database and get that picture from that traffic cam."

"Okie dokie," Riley said bluntly.

"You can't do it?" Ben asked a little startled.

"Oh, I can do it," Riley said. "I just don't like that you assume that I can do it."

Abigail laughed, "Why thank you, Riley." She gave a look to Ben and gently slapped him, as Ben gave her a look back.

"I'm staying out of this one!" I commented. We continued to drive, until we got onto a bridge. Mitch was right next to us, and Ben held the plank up in the air. He then threw it into the water and we sped off back to the hotel.


	9. Revealing

**Chapter 8: Revealing**

When we got to the hotel in London, we got cleaned up, and got the soonest flight possible back home. We were on the plane by 10pm (London time) that night, and made it back to D.C. by 1am our time. We grabbed a hotel for the night, planning on heading back to Mr. Patrick's house when we woke up. But considering the jet lag, and the tiredness from the events in London, that wasn't until the afternoon!

At around noon, we got up and headed to Mr. Patrick's house. Riley had gotten the picture from the traffic cam in London on his computer, and was going to see if Mr. Patrick knew what language it was. Upon arrival, and after Mr. Patrick thinking that Ben and Abigail were together again, we sat down in the living room while Mr. Patrick studied the picture of the plank.

"I can't read the whole thing," Mr. Patrick began, "but I can tell you that these are definitely pre-colonial Native American markings."

"Easily five hundred years old," Ben commented.

"Easily," Mr. Patrick confirmed. He zoomed into the picture, then said, "I can identify one symbol." He turned to Ben, "Look at this. Do you know what that is?"

"Sacred calendrical? I don't know," Ben replied.

"That symbol," Mr. Patrick said, "is Cibola."

Ben closed his eyes in thought, then said, "The City of Gold." We all looked up him astonished. We were searching for the City of Gold. Ben went to look for encyclopedias and books about it. He found one, and began to read.

"'In 1527," Ben began, "a Spanish ship wrecked on the Florida coast. There were only four survivors. One was a slave named Estebán who saved a local tribe's dying chief. As a reward, he was taken to their sacred city, a city built from solid gold. Later, when Estebán tried to find the city again, he never could. But the legend grew, and every explorer came to the New World in search of it. When General Custer's search for gold ended with his last stand at Little Bighorn, it became clear none would ever find it.'"

"Ben," Mr. Patrick said, "can you imagine if the Confederates got their hands on the City of Gold? My God."

"I'm going to go talk to her," Ben replied. "And you're coming with me."

"No!" Mr. Patrick replied. He began to walk away, but Ben confronted him.

"Hey. No one else can translate it," Ben said.

"There are others," Mr. Patrick said. "There are several others."

"For ancient Native American? There's no one better."

"Who?" Riley asked. Abigail and I looked at each other and giggled, while Riley and Hannah still gave confused looks.

"Look, Ben," Mr. Patrick said, "I can't go with you. It's been what? Twenty-five years."

"Thirty-two," Ben corrected.

"That long?" Mr. Patrick asked himself aloud. Then he turned back to Ben, "There's a reason why we haven't spoken in 32 years. We have nothing in common."

"Me?" Ben said pointing to himself.

"Yes, of course," Mr. Patrick realized. "And I'm sure she's just as proud of you as I am."

"Who?" Riley and Hannah asked in unison.

"His mom," Abigail and I answered in unison. Ben asked Riley to print out the picture from his computer, then we hopped in my car and headed for the University of Maryland, since Ben's mom was a professor there. Upon arrival, we headed to the building that Ben's mom was in. We bustled through the swarms of students, as Ben asked for directions and Mr. Patrick talked about how him being there was a bad idea. We finally made it to her room, as a girl runs out of the room yelling, "I hate her!"

"We're in the right place," Mr. Patrick confirmed.

"I'm going to go ahead and take myself out of the line of fire for this one, guys," Riley said sitting in the chair outside. I looked back at him before entering, and he just shrugged his shoulders and mouthed, "What?" I shook my head and walked inside.

"Hi, Mom," Ben said walking over to his mom and hugging her.

"Benjamin!" she said excitedly while returning the hug to her son. She looked over at Abigail and said, "Abigail! What a surprise!" She hugged Abigail, and then looked at Hannah and me. "Who are these two?" she asked. "Surely you would have told me if you had children!"

"Oh, no!" Ben said. "These are the two girls I met when we found the Templar treasure. This is Aviana," Ben said pointing at me.

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Appleton," I said shaking her hand (I noticed her name on the door to her room).

"Oh please, call me Emily!" Ms. Emily replied.

"And she's married to my best friend," Ben said putting his hand on my shoulder.

"That boy that will never come and meet me?" Ms. Emily asked.

"That wouldn't surprise me," I said shaking my head.

"And this is Hannah," Ben said pointing to Hannah. "She's Aviana's best friend."

"Nice to meet you," Hannah said shaking Ms. Emily's hand. Ms. Emily began to reply, when she looked over Hannah's shoulder and noticed Mr. Patrick.

"Oh," was her blunt response.

"You see?" Mr. Patrick said. "One syllable, a knife in the heart."

"Oh no," Ben said.

"She can do that," Mr. Patrick said.

"Yes," Ms. Emily remarked, "and I can also track the whereabouts of my toothbrush."

"I was not the one that left the toothbrushes in Marrakech!" Mr. Patrick argued. "I stowed them both in the travel case, as instructed!"

"Yes," Ms. Emily agreed, "and you also insisted on loading the luggage into the taxi."

"Didn't insist. I loaded the luggage."

"Yes, but not the travel case."

"The travel case is not luggage. The travel case goes into the luggage. Who was in charge of packing the luggage?"

"I couldn't get the case into the luggage because was full with that stupid rug you bought."

"Mom," Ben said to try to end the argument in vain.

"You thought it had secret stitching," Ms. Emily continued. "How stupid was that?"

"Mom," Ben said again.

"It did have secret stitching!" Mr. Patrick corrected. They both continued to argue to the point that I could no longer even understand them.

"Mom!" Ben finally shouted. Ms. Emily finally turned to face her son, ending the argument. "I need you to take a look at this," Ben said handing Ms. Emily the picture.

"What is that a picture of?" Ms. Emily asked.

"It's very interesting," Ben said. "We think it might be Olmec."

"It is," Ms. Emily said studying the picture. "Yes, yes, definitely proto-Zoquean."

"We were hoping you could translate it," Mr. Patrick said.

"Of course you were," Ms. Emily said while giving Mr. Patrick an angered look while putting on her glasses. Then she froze, and looked at Ben and asked, "This doesn't involve another treasure hunt, does it?"

"Mom," Ben replied, "this is actually really important."

"Alright," Ms. Emily said, "what do we have here." She studied the picture. "'Find the noble bird'," she began to translate, "'let him take you by the hand and give you passage to the sacred temple.'" She laughed, then said, "You think this is a treasure map for Cibola, don't you?"

"Well that's exactly what it is," Mr. Patrick stated.

"No," Ms. Emily contrasted, "this glyph doesn't mean 'Cibola'. It means 'the center of the world'."

"You know," Mr. Patrick began, "you used to like it. She fell in love with me on a treasure hunt."

"That was not love," Ms. Emily corrected. "That was

excitement, adrenaline and tequila."

"Mom," Ben said to try and stop the argument from progressing.

"Here we go again," Hannah sighed.

"I was trying to get course credit," Ms. Emily finished.

"Treasure hunting paid off," Mr. Patrick said, "in case you haven't read the papers."

"That had nothing to do with you," Ms. Emily stated. "That was Ben. Ben found the treasure. You did nothing."

"Patrick, Emily, please," Abigail interrupted. "Can we just figure out what's on the page?"

"Well that's it I'm afraid," Ms. Emily replied. "These glyphs are only partials. So you only have half a treasure map. I'm sorry." She leaned over to Ben, "Not that I'm surprised," she said while glaring up at Mr. Patrick.

"Well thank you, Mom," Ben said as we said our good byes. We headed out, picked up Riley, and then walked out of the building.


	10. The Second Half

**Chapter 9: The Second Half**

"At least we know where the rest of the map is," Ben said as we walked toward the parking lot.

"What?" Mr. Patrick asked. "You know where it is? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because obviously, you have a tendency to overreact!" Ben yelled back at Mr. Patrick.

Mr. Patrick shrugged, "I'm sorry."

"So am I," Ben replied.

"So where is it?" Mr. Patrick asked.

"Inscription on the statue in Paris said, 'These twins stand resolute'," Ben replied.

"We think the map's divided between the two Resolute desks," I finished.

"The Resolute desk?" Mr. Patrick asked. "_The _Resolute desk? The President's desk?"

"The president?" Riley asked. "Which president? Our president?"

"Unfortunately yes," I answered.

"But that means..." Riley began, "wait, so we have to...the White House?"

"The Oval Office," Ben said, "to be exact."

"Why would I overreact to that?" Mr. Patrick said. We hopped back into the car and, after stopping at a restaurant to grab something to eat, we headed back to Mr. Patrick's house to begin to figure out a plan to get into the Oval Office. Riley researched some things on the computer, while Ben and Mr. Patrick looked through books. Abigail, Hannah, and I chatted with each other, giving our input every now and then.

"Guys!" Riley shouted suddenly. "Take a look at this." We all ran over as he pointed to the advertisement for the Easter Egg Roll on the White House website.

"This could work," I said.

"Why Abigail," Ben said, "I believe it's time for you to make a date with your new boyfriend."

"I think you're right," Abigail replied. I looked up at her and winked, as she called Conner, and made arrangements to have a date with him at the Easter Egg Roll early the following (a Sunday) afternoon. Ben and Abigail were the only ones that went, so Riley, Hannah, and I went back home for the evening, planning on going to church in the morning.

The next day, Riley, Hannah, and I headed to church (our church being Evangel Assembly), and then went out to eat, planning on meeting Ben and Abigail in front of the White House at around 5pm. We met there, along with Mr. Patrick, and about fifteen minutes later, Ben and Abigail came over to meet us.

"It was empty," Ben said.

"Someone must have taken it," Abigail commented.

"The brightest men in our country sat at that desk for over a hundred years," Mr. Patrick said. "Of course one of them found the map."

"Take a look at this," Ben said pulling out his camera. "A symbol stamped into the wood."

"The Presidential Seal," Hannah stated.

"It's not the Presidential Seal," Abigail corrected. She pointed to the picture and said, "The eagle is holding a scroll instead of olive branches." Riley turned and walked away as we continued to deliberate.

"How would you know that?" Hannah asked.

"Well," I began, "when you work with hundreds of documents and books with that seal on it, you would notice."

"Did none of you read my book?" Riley asked from behind us. Everyone subtlety shook their heads.

"I'm your wife and I didn't even read your book," I muttered.

"What did you say, Avi?" Riley asked.

"Oh, nothing honey!" I said while cocking my head, smiling a big cheesy smile, and batting my eyelashes.

"Sure," Riley muttered back. He then turned to the rest and said, "The eagle clutching the scroll."

"Do you know what it means?" Ben said.

"Yeah," Riley replied, "but it's not something I can tell you. It's something I have to show you; in my book."

"Well I have a copy of it in my car," Ben said. "Let's head over there." So we all walked over to Ben's car, and he grabbed an unopened package. He opened it to reveal Riley's book.

"You didn't even open it?" Riley asked discouragedly.

"I was moving," Ben said.

"Chapter thirteen," Riley sighed. I hugged his arm for reassurance that I could not actually back up. He looked down at me and smiled, then kissed me on top of my head as he continued to watch Ben flip through the pages of the book.

"The President's Secret Book?" Ben asked.

"The President's Secret Book!" Riley exclaimed. He began to rant, "It happens to be a collection of documents for presidents, by presidents, and for presidents' eyes only. And I'm not just talking about JFK here, guys. The 18 and a half missing minutes of the Watergate tapes. Did the Apollo really land on the moon? Did it? Did it? And the coup de grâce... Area 51."

"Come on, Riley," Abigail said. "That's an urban legend."

"Is it, Abigail?" Riley asked. "Is it?"

"It's just totally…"

"Crazy?" Riley asked in finishing Abigail's sentence.

"Yeah," Abigail confirmed.

"Hmm," Riley pondered. "Cause last time I checked, we pretty much make our living on crazy."

"He's got a point," Ben commented.

"I guess so," Abigail agreed.

"The same symbol," Mr. Patrick said while pointing to a picture in the book.

"Released in '66 under the Freedom of Information Act. The eagle and the scroll, the secret symbol in the President's Book."

"So you're saying that whatever was on that plank is now in the President's Secret Book?" asked Hannah. Riley nodded.

"Ben," Riley began, "If it was you trying to convince me, you'd have less evidence, and I'd already believe you by now." I looked up at him, and he just said, "It's true." I squeezed his arm tighter.

"Ok," Ben finally said, "I'll head over to the FBI building tomorrow morning and see if Sadusky has any information on it."

Riley smiled, "Thank you, Ben."

"You're welcome," Ben said. "You guys can go home now. I'll call you tomorrow and let you know what I find out."

"Alright," I said, "talk to y'all tomorrow." And with that, Hannah, Riley, and I walked toward my car.


	11. The Book

**Chapter 10: The Book**

After that episode, we headed home, had a small dinner, and watched movies for the rest of the night. Monday morning dawned, and I dropped Riley off at the bookstore and headed for work, while Hannah stayed at home with the dogs. At around three that afternoon (two hours before Abigail and I got off work), Riley calls me with news about the book.

"Ben wants us to meet him at his dad's house as soon as you get off work," Riley said. "He says he'll have pizza ready for us. Tell Abigail and Hannah that too."

"Ok," I replied.

"Oh! And guess what!"

"What?"

"Agent Sadusky bought my book _and_ read it!" I could tell even through the phone that Riley was jumping up and down with excitement.

"I'm happy for you," I told him, more sincerely than I actually thought. "Well, I've got to get back to work. I'll call you when I'm on my way to pick you up. I love you."

"Love you too. Bye." And Riley hung up. After relaying the information to Abigail and calling Hannah, I began to finish up work. Abigail and I clocked out, and I picked up Riley and Hannah, we headed over to Mr. Patrick's house. We got there, and we all sat down in the living room.

Ben began to tell us what happened, "Ok, so Sadusky confirmed that the book is real, but he doesn't know where it is, so that the only way I could get a hold of the book is if I ask the president where it is. All I need is a few minutes with him."

"A few minutes?" asked Riley. "Really?"

"Even if you were married to the president," I began, "you wouldn't be able to get a few minutes."

"Not when he's surrounded by handlers," Ben stated, "but if I get him alone."

"How do you expect to get the president alone?" Hannah asked.

"Before the Civil War," Ben began, "the states were all separate. People used to say, 'The United States are.' Wasn't until the war ended people started saying, 'The United States is.' Under Lincoln, we became one nation."

"And Lincoln paid for it with his life," Mr. Patrick stated.

"So did Thomas Gates," Ben said. "With his life." He paused, "So how am I gonna get him alone? I'm gonna kidnap him. I'm gonna kidnap the president of the United States." We were all stunned.

Abigail began to laugh, then said, "That's not funny."

"I'm your father," Mr. Patrick said angrily. "How do you expect me to respond? I can't let you ruin your life."

"Are you out of your mind?" Hannah asked.

"Read my book," Riley said, "and you'd know

you can't get to that book."

"Exactly how do you plan on doing this?" I asked.

"I was thinking Mount Vernon," Ben replied.

"Oh," Mr. Patrick replied.

"What?" Abigail asked. Hannah and I looked confused ourselves.

"I'm in," Riley said.

"What's the plan?" I asked.

"Well," Ben began, "The president is having a birthday party this Friday. The White House officials are planning it today, and booking a place now. If you guys can make sure that they have to book Mount Vernon. Then we should be all set."

"Ok," Riley said as he clicked away at keys on his laptop. Riley, Mr. Patrick, and Hannah were in charge of any calls that needed to be made. After a few hours of phone calls, computer clicks, and booking, we finally got the White House officials to have the president's birthday party at Mount Vernon. We spent the next three days doing the final preparations for this crime…the second one we have committed with Ben.


	12. Kidnapping the President

**Chapter 11: Kidnapping the President**

Friday finally rolled around. Ben made the final plans ready, and went over with us about what we were to do. Ben would go out on a boat in the Potomac River, rowed by Mr. Patrick. Ben would dive into the water, go up to the Mount Vernon property, and take off his wet suit, with his tuxedo underneath. Mr. Patrick would go back to his car, and Ben would meet him, and drive to wherever the book was kept. He would call us, and we would all meet him there as well.

So when Ben and Mr. Patrick headed to Mount Vernon, Riley, Hannah, and I all drove over to Abigail's house. It was agreed there that she would drive to wherever Ben told us to meet him at. We all sat in a circle in Abigail's living room just simply praying. If something went wrong, and Ben was caught and arrested, we knew he would be facing life imprisonment…or worse. We all gripped each other's hands tightly as we were praying, and it wasn't long before Abigail needed to bring a tissue box in for us; particularly for her and Riley. However, before the night was over, we had all used at least a tissue or two. Suddenly, at around 10pm, Riley's phone rang. He answered it. The caller ID read "Ben".

"Hello?" Riley answered cautiously. He didn't want to get his, or our, hopes up, just in case it wasn't Ben calling after all.

"Riley, you guys need to meet me at the Library of Congress in twenty minutes," Ben said.

"Ok, we will," Riley replied. "Ben, I'm so glad you've made it out ok."

"Don't be too glad yet," Ben said. "If we can't find the City of Gold, I'm still going to be arrested. Everyone at that party knows I kidnapped the president." Riley and the rest of us froze in a deathly silence. This shouldn't have been a surprise to us, but the reality hit us in the face like a pile of bricks. "You still there?" Ben finally asked after we heard him get into his dad's car.

"Uh, yeah," Riley replied, "we'll meet you at the Library of Congress." He hung up, then we grabbed our things, hopped in Abigail's car, and sped off for the Library of Congress.


	13. Finding the Book

**Chapter 12: Finding the Book**

We got there at the same time Ben did, and we met him while walking up the stairs to the Library. We walked into the study room, as Ben told us the book's number: XY234786

"XY is the book classification code," Abigail stated.

"It stands for special collections," I began, "which means very, very special books."

"Where are they?" Ben asked.

"This way," Abigail replied. "We'll sneak in." Abigail and I lead the way to the area where the XY classification code should be (we didn't know the exact area since no one was allowed there). We passed through doors, and climbed up stairs, finally beginning to get somewhere.

"Here we go," Abigail said.

"XA," I said as we began to look. "XM." We continued to look until we found a door with a code lock on it. Ben pushed in some numbers and got us in. We looked in to find a small room, filled to the brim with book shelves.

"What did the president say the number was?" Abigail asked as we began to search.

"Two-three-four-seven-eight-six," Ben replied. We began to search franticly for this book. Finally Abigail and I found XY23's, and we looked on either side of the book shelf, as I came down to the book and she came up. Our fingers met, with the book missing.

"Maybe someone checked it out," Riley said. Ben came over and began to take books down.

"Why would he send us here if there was no book?" Hannah asked agitatedly.

"He probably wanted us to get caught," Riley remarked. Ben looked up at the book shelf and noticed something, then he began to take down more books and hand them to Riley. They revealed a box of some type with a six digit lock on it.

Ben thought for a moment, then said, "The location's the combination," and he began to turn the dials on the lock. After doing so, the box opened, and revealed the President's Secret Book. Ben grabbed the book, and brought it to a small table.

"I was right," Riley said astonishedly.

"Well done Mr. Poole," I said smiling and grabbing his arm. Riley turned to the table Ben was at, and set his pile of books down. He ran his hand over the seal on the front and smiled. Ben opened the book and began to flip through the pages. Riley would point out things, and Ben just tried to shush him.

"We don't have time," Ben finally stated.

"That's true," Riley said after clearing his throat.

"If Ben wasn't in a race to get to get out of here to avoid getting arrested, you could show us," I finally said.

"Here," Ben said finally finding the passage he needed. He began to read, "'April 1865. Queen Victoria sends Pike two coded missives. The first is received. Contains information regarding New World treasure. 'The City of Gold'." Ben looks up and smiles.

"Wait," Riley began. "The queen wanted to help the Confederacy?"

"A divided America would have been weaker," Abigail stated.

"And they needed cotton from the South," I concluded.

"'The second missive was thought to contain a Playfair cipher suggesting contact with Laboulaye, who'll hide clues before his death.'" Ben look up and said, "That's the cipher written into the Booth diary page that Thomas tried to burn."

"The one we have," Hannah commented.

"Exactly," Ben confirmed. He turned back and continued reading, "'1880; Resolute desk arrives in Washington, sent by queen to President Hayes.'" He turns the page and finds a picture of the missing plank in between the pages. He picked it up and showed us, and then said, "Here's the final entry by President Coolidge, '1924. I found a plank in secret desk compartment. Plank photographed and then destroyed. Borglum commissioned to destroy landmarks in sacred Black Hills mountains.'"

"Borglum," Abigail began to think. "Mount Rushmore?"

"He carved Mount Rushmore to erase the map's landmarks in order to protect the City of Gold," Ben stated.

"Mount Rushmore was a cover up?" Riley thought allowed. Suddenly, we heard sirens and a helicopter, and saw red and blue lights shining in through the window.


	14. Escaping

**Chapter 13: Escaping**

Upon seeing the flashing lights, Riley ran over to the window and looked out. He then said, "There's my tax dollars at work, coming to arrest me."

"You haven't gotten that taken care of yet?" I asked Riley angrily.

"They're not coming for you, Riley," Ben said before Riley had the chance to answer me. "They're coming for me. Go to the car."

"No, Ben!" Abigail said concernedly.

"Go!" Ben commanded. "I'll meet up with you."

"This way," Abigail said as she reluctantly walked away. We walked quickly down to the study room, and went through a secret door that led to the basement of the library, as well as the staff parking. We walked down numerous stairs, and finally got to the staff parking lot, where Abigail's car was parked.

"How are we going to find Ben?" Riley asked.

"I don't know," I replied concernedly. Then I turned to Riley and said, "I still would like to know-"

"Hold it!" an FBI agent shouted interrupting me. "Who are you?"

"We work here," Abigail said.

"ID's," the agent asked.

"Here," I said as Abigail and I handed him our work ID's. "We were told to evacuate." We all began to shout out stories, and parts of sentences.

"Go ahead," the agent finally said.

"Thank you," I said. We began to walk down to Abigail's car, and the four of us began to pile in, saving a seat for Ben in the back. Abigail started the car, and looked in the rearview mirror to see Ben climbing down to us. We all slowly began to buckle our seat belts and Abigail put the car in gear.

"Uh-oh," Hannah said looking up.

"What's the problem?" the agent said shinning a light into the car. "It's clear. Let's go!" We sat still, refusing to move while giving Ben time to get down to the car.

"We're going to jail," Riley said. I gripped his hand and prayed. Abigail opened the trunk of her car. The agent began to talk into his walkie talkie, and Abigail took off, with Ben chasing after us. He jumped into the car, and gripped the back seat for dear life as we flew over speed bumps with the trunk door still open. Abigail got the door to close, and she turned a corner to go out of the parking lot, a police car chasing after us. The barricade began to raise up, and Abigail floored it, and we just barely made it over it, losing the bumper along the way. The police car behind us crashed into the barricade, and we were able to get away.

"That did not turn out the way it was supposed to!" Riley shouted after getting a good distance away from the library.

"How did they find us so quickly?" Hannah asked looking back at Ben in the back seat.

"I'll tell you how," Riley replied. "The president is a tattle-tail!"

"Sadusky," Ben finally said catching his breath. "He was there. He knows more about the book than I thought."

"How did the president feel about being kidnapped?" I asked Ben who was sitting next to me in the back seat.

"He was ok," Ben said still panting.

"So what's the plan?" Abigail asked.

"I called my dad," Ben began, "and sent him a picture of the plank. He's going to take it to my mom for translation. Then I called that friend I have that's a charter pilot."

"Steve?" Abigail asked.

"Yeah," Ben confirmed. "He agreed to fly us over to South Dakota, and drive us over to Mount Rushmore. After that though, we'll be on our own for getting to an airport and getting back home."

"Ok," Abigail said. "So, we'll need to go to Steve's house right?"

"No," Ben said. "He said he'd drive over to your house, and my dad will meet us there too. Then, after my dad gets there, Steve will drive us to wherever his plane is after we get there."

"Ok," Abigail agreed. So we drove back over to Abigail's house, and we made introductions while we waited for Mr. Patrick to get there. Abigail parked her car in the garage and packed a few things in back packs for us all to carry. Finally, at around 2 that morning, Mr. Patrick arrived, and we hopped in Steve's van and headed to the charter airport.


	15. Confrontation at Mount Rushmore

**Chapter 14: Confrontation at Mount Rushmore**

It was about 4 in the morning when we took off, and made it to South Dakota by 8. We all piled out and Steve drove us to Mount Rushmore. We got there by 11. We ate some snacks that Abigail so graciously brought, and then we headed up to the top of Mount Rushmore. Hannah and I went down to the gift shop to buy water bottles for everyone, while the rest of the gang stayed up at the stairs leading to Mount Rushmore itself. We came back to find Mitch and his men. They had Ms. Emily in custody. Ben was talking to them, and then finally turned around and saw that we were back. He told all of us to follow him; Mitch accompanying us. Riley, Abigail, Hannah, and I were all nervous. Ms. Emily was frantic (she found out that Ben kidnapped the president) and Mr. Patrick was trying in vain to calm her down. We found an "island of stone" (part of the translation from the plank), and we began to search around for a "noble bird", which turned into an unsuccessful search.

"Alright, Mitch," Ben began after we searched for a while, "what's the clue from Queen Victoria's letter?"

"'The entrance shall only be revealed under a cloudless rain'," Mitch answered. "Figure that one out."

"So, we come back when it's raining?" Riley asked.

"'Cloudless,'" Ben began, "could simply mean the sun. We need a sunny day…and rain. We need water." He told everyone to start wetting the rocks around us, noticing that the rocks become darker when wet. We took out our water bottles, and began to water this "island of stone."

Abigail walked over to what appeared to be a pile of rocks. She started to water it, and there was a section of the rocks that didn't become darker. The section was in the shape of an eagle, with a hole at the center.

"Over here!" she yelled upon her discovery. "I found it!" We all ran over to her, and Ben got down beside her and examined it. "It's an eagle," Hannah said.

"'The noble bird will give you passage,'" Ms. Emily said.

"Now what?" I asked. Then we all began to shout out guesses as to what to do with this eagle.

"You can stand around guessing for a while, or I can give you the next clue," Mitch finally said. "'Surrender your hand to the heart of the warrior.'"

"And the eagle is the symbol of the warrior," Ms. Emily finally added. Ben stared at his hand for a few seconds, then began to stick his hand into the mini cave at the center of the eagle.

"Ben, no. Wait, wait! No," Ms. Emily said trying to stop Ben. "That's probably a horrible trap." She nudged Mr. Patrick and said, "Tell him!"

"It's a horrible trap," Mr. Patrick agreed.

"It would be a pity to come this far and not even try, now, wouldn't it?" Mitch said.

"I'll do it, Ben," Riley said. I immediately turned back at Riley and gulped.

"It's ok," Ben said. He looked at Abigail and she nodded cautiously. He stared at his hand again, and said, "Surrender your hand." He stuck his hand into the crevice, and felt around. Then Ben began to scream at the top of his lungs.


	16. The Caves

**Chapter 15: The Caves**

Hearing Ben screaming sent us all into action. Riley screamed in response. Ms. Emily and Mr. Patrick began to run down to him. Abigail was nudging him, trying to get him to say what happened. I jumped down to him, grabbed his shoulder, and asked if he was ok. Then Ben began to laugh.

"I am sorry," He finally said. "I couldn't resist." And that was proceeded by a nice punch in the shoulder by Abigail. Ben began to feel around and said, "It feels like a latch." He pulled it, and a huge rock wall fell behind us, revealing an opening into a cave. We all headed toward it, and walked inside. There were quite a few Aztec stone relics that Ms. Emily truly enjoyed. There was a stone door and a counter weight to hold the door open as well. We walked around exploring. I followed Riley, as he explored. We heard a strange noise coming from the direction of the counter weight. Riley touched the ropes holding the counterweight together, and they snapped, and the counter weight began to fall apart. Mr. Patrick, Ms. Emily, Hannah, and Mitch darted out of the way. Ben grabbed a hold of Abigail, and shielded her from any oncoming debris. Riley and I were right at the heart of it, and he jumped on top of me to protect me from any of the weight falling on top of me. The stone door rolled back into place, and finally, the chaos stopped.

"Sorry," Riley said as he rolled off of me.

"You ok?" Mitch asked as he offered to help Riley up.

"No," Riley said as he stood up and then helped me up. Ben and his parents, along with Abigail, began to examine the door, which appeared to be bolted down.

"You're ok, right?" Hannah asked as she ran up to me and hugged me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied hugging her back.

"Only one way out of here now," Mitch said as we all turned to him. He pointed his flashlight down farther into the cave and said, "Forward." We all nodded and continued further into the cave, trying to find any way to Cibola. There were quite a few more relics that Ms. Emily studied, and was fascinated by. She couldn't believe how well they had been preserved.

"Looks like we're going to be moving some rocks here people," Mitch said. We all pointed our flashlights at him, as he showed us what appeared to be a tunnel behind some rocks.

That is, all of us except for Riley, who shouted, "Guys, look at this," while staring at a golden object on the wall. "It's a little golden man," he said as he began to walk towards it. Abigail, Hannah, and I were right next to him looking at this little man, with Ben and Mitch directly behind us. "It's got a tiny little torso," Riley continued. "It looks like-" and he was interrupted by the floor underneath us giving out, creating a slope that all of us, except Ben's parents, began to fall down. We fell onto some wooden square that kept tilting. It was tilted at a slope that Ben was at the bottom of.

"Go back! Go back!" Ben yelled as his flashlight fell to reveal skeletons at the bottom of some black hole. We all began to run to the other side of the square, and I slipped and began to tumble down the slope to where Ben was.

"Avi!" Riley yelled from midway on the square. He began to run down for me, but Mitch grabbed his arm.

"If you go after her," Mitch said pulling Riley to the other side of the square, "you'll fall down there too."

"But she's my wife!" Riley yelled. "I can't let her fall into that black hole!" He had looked down and noticed that I had gotten a grip on the edge of this wooden square, but not a good one.

"Then let's stay on this side of the square and hope that she can pull herself back up," Mitch said. Riley looked at him reluctantly, and then turned back to me.

"Riley," Abigail began, "do what Mitch says. He knows what he's doing." Riley reluctantly nodded and stayed where he was, and the square began to level. Ben climbed back up, and I my hands slipped. Riley and Hannah gasped. Ben jumped and grabbed me to save me from falling down to the bottom of the hole. Once he realized that he had a hold of me, Ben pulled me up and onto the square. Once I got up, the square began to tilt on the side the others were on, and Ben began to tell people where to go as to even out the square.

"We have to balance our weight to even this thing out," Ben commented. Once we all had our balance, the square finally leveled out. It wasn't steady, but fairly level.

We began to shine our flashlights around to try and find a way off of this square. Abigail found a ladder…or what was left of one. Ben asked for her flashlight, and she threw it to him. He caught it and he and Riley moved to where the square was still level, but Ben was at the corner nearest the ladder. He pointed the flashlight up toward the ladder, and found what appeared to be the entrance to another cave behind it.

"If we can raise this corner," Ben began, "I think I'll reach it." Before we had a chance to move, Mitch began to move towards Ben, throwing the entire square off balance.

"Stop!" Riley yelled. "Red light!"

"You're not helping!" Abigail yelled after she had fallen down.

"I can get up there just as easy as you," Mitch said as he took another step towards Ben. We all franticly tried to keep our balance and level the square.

"Just stop!" Ben yelled as he took a few steps towards Mitch.

"It's five against one here," Mitch began. "I ain't going last, and if I'm not going last, I might as well go first." Ben and Mitch took a few more steps towards each other, and then Mitch said, "What's it gonna be?" They both grabbed each other's shirts, and Mitch looked down into the hole beside them. They were right on the edge, and either man could throw the other off the square to their death. They stared at each other for a few more moments.

"We'll do this your way," Ben finally said. They both turned around, still holding on to each other's shirts. We all watched nervously. Finally, they finished turning to where Mitch was closest to the corner by the ladder. They released each other, and began to back up to their respective corners, and we did as well.

Once we were all back at our respective places, Ben said, "The rest of us, on my count of three, all move together; one step at a time." We nodded, and Ben counted to three. We began to all move together to the corner across from Mitch. Once we were all huddled together, Mitch was able to grab the ladder.

"Ready?" Mitch asked.

"Go," Ben replied. We all ran to the center of the square until Mitch's feet were no longer on the square. We all stayed in our huddled position and watched as Mitch attempted to climb up the ladder. After breaking one of the steps, Mitch was finally able to get to the ledge. "Mitch, what do you see?" Ben asked with no response. We sat for a few minutes and waited, but there was no response.

"I've been doing the math here," Abigail began. "We're going to have to leave one person behind."

"I'll stay," Hannah said.

"No," Ben and Riley said unanimously.

"But who is going to go?" Hannah asked.

"I'm staying," Riley finally said. I turned and reached for him, but he just looked at me and I stopped. I looked down, then back up at Riley and reluctantly nodded my head. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. Riley looked up at Ben and said, "Just promise me you'll come back for me." Ben nodded.

"It's safe," Mitch finally shouted. "Go ahead and come up."

"Ok," Ben shouted back. He turned to Hannah and said, "That makes you next."

"I'll go after Hannah and Abigail," I said.

"No!" Abigail yelled back at me.

"Abigail," I began, "I want to stay." She paused, then reluctantly nodded. We got into position to allow Hannah to reach the ladder. She was able to reach it, barely, and we did the same routine of running to the middle. She climbed up fairly easily, and then Abigail got into position. Abigail reached the ledge, needing a little help from Mitch, who had come back over to the ledge, but once she was up, I got into position. Ben and Riley did the same thing as before, and I began to climb up the ladder.

I reached for the ledge, but couldn't get a hold of it. "I can't get it!" I screamed as my hand slipped off the ledge and I began to dangle, my one hand hanging on to the ladder for dear life. Suddenly, I heard a huge crack from below. I looked down to see the support for the square began to fall apart underneath Riley and Ben.

"Just go, now!" Ben shouted at Riley who was the closest to the ladder. The corner was barely raised, and he jumped for the ladder (screaming mind you).

"Riley, hang on!" I yelled after just being helped up by Mitch, Abigail, and Hannah. We noticed a gold idol, and then looked back down at Ben, who was left on the crumbling square.

"Ben!" Abigail yelled. "We found a gold idol! We can roll it to offset your weight!"

"Then roll it!" Ben shouted back. Abigail and I set the idol on its side, and rolled it off the edge of the ledge, narrowly avoiding Riley who was still on the ladder. Ben ran towards the idol, and jumped over it, and leaped for the ladder. He got a hold of it, but began to slip off.

"Here, give me your hand!" Riley yelled offering his hand. Ben grabbed his hand, and Riley pulled him up to the second step of this ladder.

"Thanks Riley," Ben panted. They managed to climb onto the ledge, and Abigail helped Ben up and hugged him. Once Riley had his footing, I embraced him tightly. He smiled, and laid his head on top of mine. After I let go of him, I was immediately hugged by Abigail, with Hannah following her. We smiled after this mini triumph we had.

"So," Mitch began, "forward." We nodded, and began to walk into this new cave we had found. We found a narrow passage way, that appeared to be slippery, and we carefully began to climb down through it. Finally, it widened, and there was an archway that led into a dark room. Ben found two fire troughs at either side of the archway, and he took a flare, lit it, and lit the fire troughs. It revealed the room, which had water flowing all in it, and whose floor was covered in water up to our ankles. In the center was some sort of round wheel with four pegs sticking out on the sides. We began to look around for any passage way to Cibola.

"It's a dead end!" Abigail finally yelled. "There's no way out!"

"We'll have to turn back," Hannah commented. The others still continued to search for some passage way.

"There's no forward!" I yelled after searching for a little while longer.

Ben pointed his flare at something in the water, then said, "It's not forward! It's down! All this water has to go out somewhere, otherwise it'd be filled up!" Ben observed the places the water was coming in at for a while, then looked at the wheel in the center of this room. He walked over to it and yelled, "Help me turn this wheel!" We all ran over and grabbed a peg (leaving two pegs to have more than one person on it), and began to walk in a circle. Ben looked up at the water openings to find that they were closing. Once they were all closed, we let go of the pegs and watched.

"The water's going down!" Mitch said.


	17. The City of Gold

**Chapter 16: The City of Gold**

After the water was basically drained, we began to look for an opening. We found one in the floor of this room, leading to a tunnel. We walked into it, water still dripping all around us. We came out of this tunnel, only to be greeted by…Cibola! The City of Gold!

We just sat and stared at this, almost glowing city. Though it was still partially flooded, it was beautiful. Riley and I hugged each other, Hannah and Abigail high fived, Mitch stood in amazement, and Ben just smiled the biggest grin I had ever seen. Just as we were getting ready to go and explore, we heard someone yell, "Hey!" We turned to see Mr. Patrick and Ms. Emily standing in another archway waving at us.

"We found it!" Ben yelled. "Thomas was right! No, you were right!"

"Sorry I smeared your great-great granddaddy's good name," Mitch began. "Seemed like the only way to get you in on the hunt. But this was a chance for the Wilkinson family to make its mark on history, to find the City of Gold, to be remembered." Ben just nodded, and we went to explore. Hannah and I went up onto the platform in the center of the city, and Ben ran up to see his parents. Hannah and I talked for a while, with Abigail joining us, then I looked up at the top of one of the temples and just laughed.

"What?" Abigail asked me.

I pointed up and said, "Riley's trying to sneak a piece of gold so he could get the money to work out his tax issues."

"He apparently doesn't realize that you can see him," Hannah said laughing.

I looked up at Riley and yelled, "Hey hon, I can see you, you know!"

He jumped up, looked at me, hid his backpack and giggled. "Hey babe!" he said as if I didn't see a thing. I gave him a look.


	18. Escaping Cibola

**Chapter 17: Escaping Cibola**

As I continued to look around Cibola, I noticed some gurgling below the temple Riley was on. Water began to flow into the city. Suddenly, there was crack, more cracks, and a huge thunder as water rushed in from all angles. Ben turned to watch the water come in, his eyes wide. Riley was pummeled by the water, and everyone made a mad dash for the platform. If we didn't get out soon, we would drown.

"I tried to find a way out," Mitch said as everyone ran to the platform Abigail, Hannah, and I were on. "All those portals are blocked off!"

"I'm telling you," Ben began, "all this water goes out somewhere! We'll find it!" Mr. Patrick pulled out his wallet, pulled out a dollar bill, and threw it into the water.

"Ben, there's a current!" he yelled. Hannah and I ran over to see where the bill went.

"Follow it!" Ben replied. "There's got to be a central drain!"

"It's under us!" I yelled. "Right here!" We all jumped into the water and began to try and find the drain. We raced into the tunnel, finding stairs which lead down to a small cavern with some sort of wheel (with only two pegs) reaching to the top of the cavern. On the opposite side of the opening was a door.

"The water is rising too fast!" Ben yelled. "Let's get that door open so we don't all drown!" Mitch and Ben grabbed the wheel, and turned it, raising the door.

"It slopes down!" Mr. Patrick said. "It's a drainage tunnel! But it fills with water when you open the door!"

"We need to find something to stick under it to keep it open!" Abigail said.

"No," Hannah said, "if it's open, the tunnel will stay flooded."

"We've got to get to the other side and close the door," I commented. The door was open enough to allow someone to go through easily.

"Patrick, Emily, go!" Riley yelled. Right as they began to run into the tunnel, Mitch let go of the wheel, and Ben, unable to hold it, let go as well. The door slammed shut, luckily no one in it at the time.

"Mitch," Riley yelled, "we've got to be on the other side of that door!"

"Nobody leaves unless I say so," Mitch said. "That door is not gonna stay open by itself." He turned to Ben, "We both know what has to happen here."

"One of us keeps the door open," Ben began, "and stays behind."

"I vote Mitch," Riley commented. I nudged him for saying that out loud, but that was my vote as well.

"This isn't a democracy," Mitch said. And with that, he turned to Ben and punched him in the face. Riley ran to him to protect Ben, and he too was punched and knocked off his feet. I grabbed him to keep him from falling into the water. Mitch pulled out a knife, grabbed Abigail, and held the knife up to her throat. I began to run after Mitch, but he just glared at me, and held the knife closer to Abigail's throat. I stepped back to where Riley was, and grabbed his hand in fear.

"Stop!" Ben yelled. "I'm staying!" He walked over to the wheel, "Look, I'm here! See, I'm staying!"

"Ok, I'll tell everybody how this is going to go," Mitch began. "You and me are going to open that door. Anybody tries to leave before me, I drop the door, and we start this all over again! Try any funny business, I guarantee you people are going to get hurt!"

"I won't," Ben said. "You have my word. Just let her go." Mitch stared at Ben for a minute, and then released Abigail. I immediately ran over to her and hugged her.

"Ben, we're not leaving without you!" Ms. Emily said.

"Abigail," Ben called. Abigail walked up to him as he said, "You make my parents leave. You make my parents leave." She stood there shaking for a bit, grabbed his face, and walked away while still staring at Ben, tears in her eyes.

"No!" Riley yelled as he came to terms with leaving his best friend to drown.

"Riley," I said choked, "he's trying to save our lives. We have to go." Riley turned to Ben, and Ben just nodded, and Riley looked down, and made his way to the door, where Abigail had just convinced Mr. Patrick and Ms. Emily to leave without Ben, although all of us were teary eyed. Mitch and Ben had begun to open the door, and once it was open wide enough to allow us to go through and Ben had gotten a foot hold to hold the door open, Mitch handed it over to Ben. The current carrying the water was so strong, that as soon as the door was open wide enough, we were washed out…almost all of us.

We had all gone through the door except for Mitch and Ms. Emily. Right as Ms. Emily got underneath the door, something knocked Ben off of the wheel, and the door fell on Ms. Emily. I could hear Ben yell, "Mom!" as I saw his shadow come up to the door. "Hold your breath!" he yelled as I assumed that Mitch opened the door just enough that Ms. Emily could squeeze under. Ben tried to fit a log of some type under the door as Mitch released it. The log snapped, and the door fell right on top of Ben.

"We've got to get Ben out of there!" Riley shouted as he swam over to the door.

"If I'm stuck in the door," I heard Ben say, "it stays open, both rooms fill up, and we all drown! Open the door! I'll get you out!"

"The current's too strong!" Mitch said. "I open the door, you'll be washed out!"

"I'll get you out!" Ben urged.

"I found the City of Gold! I found it! And no one will ever know!"

"We can figure this out! We can all get out!"

"It's not a puzzle. No more puzzles, Ben. We're all going to die, or it could just be me." Mitch paused, "Tell them I found it."

"Don't quit!" Ben yelled. Mitch opened the door, and knowing that Ben wouldn't give up on Mitch even if there was no way to get him out; Riley dove under the water, and pulled Ben through the door. After he was up, I swam over to Riley. As I did, I heard Mitch scream, and the door slammed shut. I hung my head for a few moments, then rested my head on Riley's shoulder, and we all just caught our breath.

"Thank you," I heard Ben tell Abigail. She huddled up next to Ben, as Hannah came up to Riley and I, and Mr. Patrick and Ms. Emily hugged each other. We were exhausted. Then a stream of light shown in from the end of the tunnel, and we stood up and began to make our way out.

"We haven't officially met," Riley said to Ms. Emily after we stood up. He offered his hand and said, "I'm Riley."

"Oh, hi," Ms. Emily said as she shook his hand. The water had almost completely drained out of the tunnel, and we walked down and out of the tunnel.


	19. Encounter with the President

**Chapter 18: Encounter with the President**

After escaping Cibola, we started to hike back, and only made it to the top of Mount Rushmore before we started freezing. Ben searched his pockets, and miraculously found his phone intact! He then called Sadusky.

"Sadusky," Sadusky answered.

"I have my proof," Ben said.

"Ben!" Sadusky replied. "We were just talking about you. Ready to turn yourself in?"

"Not quite," Ben remarked. "We found the City of Gold."

"Doesn't matter. You still committed a federal crime." Ben and Sadusky began to talk some more, and then Ben hung up, stating that the FBI was going to meet us. Once they got there, Mr. Patrick and Ms. Emily were given dry clothes and taken to the airport so they could fly home. Abigail, Hannah, and I were given towels and blankets, and we were all taken to a nearby air force base. We were escorted into a large hangar, in which the president and several of his body guards were. Riley began to hit me in astonishment of being so close to the President of the United States.

"Stop it, stop it!" I whispered to Riley. The president stepped up to Ben.

"Mr. President?" one of the body guards said, astonished that the president would go up to the man that kidnapped him.

"Craig," the President responded, "gives us a minute."

"Sir, for your information," Craig began, "this is the man who kidnapped you."

"As I recall," the President said, "we were exploring a hidden tunnel, and a door closed accidentally, and this man saved my life." We all smiled.

"Yes sir," Craig said walking away.

"Gates," the President said.

"Sir," Ben replied.

"For the record, after centuries of exploration, on this day, you have brought honor to your country and your family." The President turned to us and said, "You've done this country a great service. I thank you."

"Thank you," Abigail, Hannah, and I said unanimously. Riley just sat with his mouth wide.

"Craig," the President said as Craig handed him a newspaper. He handed it to Ben and said, "I thought you might want to take a look at tomorrow's headlines."

"Tomorrow?" Riley said confused. We looked over Ben's shoulder as he flipped over the folded newspaper to see that one of the headlines read, "Thomas Gates Proved a Civil War Hero".

"Thank you, sir," Ben said.

The President turned to us and said, "All of you, along with Emily and Patrick Gates will get credit for this discovery." Ben then turned back at Abigail, and she nodded.

"And Mitch Wilkinson, sir," Ben added.

"Is that right?" the President asked.

"It's true, sir."

"Ben, I am curious about that favor I asked you. Any report regarding what's on page 47?"

"I believe I can help with that, sir."

"So it's good then?"

"Life-altering, sir." Ben and the president began to walk away.

"What's on page 47?" Riley asked. "Are you talking about the Book?"

The President turned around and said, "What Book?" Ben and the President walked off and continued talking, as plans were being made to take us back home. After Ben finished his conversation with the President, he came back, and we were given dry clothes, taken to the airport, and flew home.


	20. The Cibola Conclusion

**Chapter 19: The Cibola Conclusion**

About a day after coming home from South Dakota, Ben got a phone call, saying that there was going to a party for the celebration of finding Cibola that Friday night, and we were all wanted there. We would also be joined by Mr. Patrick and Ms. Emily, who had gone down previously to start excavating the city. So that Thursday night, we hopped on a plane and headed back out to South Dakota.

In short, the party was amazing. It was super cool to know how people actually know who we were. Ben and Abigail stayed together for the most part, and Riley and I did the same. We did hang out for a little bit during dinner, and in the gift shop, but minus that, we just mingled with our "fans".

Then there was a part that Riley particularly enjoyed. That was when one girl stopped him, shouting, "Hey, you're that guy! The treasure hunter guy, right?"

"No," Riley corrected, "actually, the guy you're thinking of is somewhere over there."

"No," she said pulling out a copy of Riley's book, "you're him. Riley Poole. I recognize you from your book." I stood shocked, as I'm sure Riley was too. Then she said, "Will you sign it?"

Riley threw everything we had into my hands and said, "Ok." He smiled, and then looked down and signed the book. After the girl walked away, I gave Riley a look, and shoved all the stuff back in his arms and ran away laughing. Once the party was over, we headed back to our hotel, and flew back to D.C. the next morning. Hannah then flew back to Tennessee right after church on Sunday.

The following week, everyone got a check in the mail with the finder's fee. Riley was thrilled to finally have the money to pay the taxes on his car off. However, when he went to put the check in the bank, all his original money was restored! The following Friday, he planned on settling this whole tax thing, and hopefully getting his Ferrari back, and finally not needing me to transport him. He also decided that the time until he got his car back, he would come with me to the Library of Congress, walk to his book store, and then walk back to the Library, since he got off before I did. But then, on Monday, the first day back to our normal lives, things got interesting….again.

I got to work on Monday, and instead of being greeted by the usual hug from Abigail, she grabbed me, jumping up and down shouting, "Ben is moving back in with me!"

"Congratulations!" I replied. "What happened?"

"Well," Abigail began, "we were at the party, and we had talked about some of the furniture he had agreed to give to me, and I told him that while he was sending them to me, he could just come back as well. At first he didn't want to, but after laying a few rules that were broken last time, he agreed. I was so happy!"

"Well, I'm glad!" I said. Then all of a sudden, my phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"Hey babe, it's me," Riley said on the other line.

"What's up?"

"I GOT MY FERRARI BACK! I also got a letter from the President saying that I am tax free! I love our President!"

"That's great! So you don't need me to transport you anymore?"

"Well…not exactly. I did back into someone else's car in the process of getting out of the parking spot so I'll have to take it to the repair shop."

"Oh lord!"

"It's not that bad! Just a few nicks and it should be all better. I should have it back by Friday!"

"Well that's good. However, you're still going to be walking until your car's fixed!"

"Yeah, I figured that." And we both laughed as I hung up and got back to work.


	21. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Once your father got his car back and fixed," I began, "everything went back to normal. And that's when we turned our attention into the kid business. About two months later, in June, I found out that I was pregnant with you."

"How did Dad react when I was born?" Chloe asked.

"He passed out," I said looking over at Riley in the recliner.

"Hey, I did not pass out!" Riley said sitting up. "I fell down on the floor with excitement…then knocked myself out on the ground."

"Yeah, that sounds just as stupid," Chloe said with a grin.

"Yeah, he wouldn't even come into the room with me until you were wrapped up and cleaned up too," I teased winking at Riley.

"Seriously?" Chloe asked.

"Hey!" Riley commented. "Babies are gross when their first born!"

"Yeah," Chloe teased, "but most people aren't disgusted when their first child is born." She winked at Riley.

"When did you get your mother's cruel sense of humor?" Riley asked smiling. We all laughed, and we chatted and relaxed in the living room for the rest of the night.


	22. Author's Note

**Well, that's it! That's how we found Cibola! :D**

**Though I still plan on writing more treasure hunt stories, I think I might take a break and do a few stories in my other "series" that I plan on writing, and post one or two stories from there. Or I could write a few one shots or stories unrelated to my "series".**

**But I could post maybe one more treasure hunt story (that will be 100% my own plot and story) ;) Review and tell me what you guys would like!**

**Keep in mind that the rest of the stories I post will almost completely be 100% my own stories, with no main plot and script to help me along. So feel free to give honest, but kind reviews :)**


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